Internal combustion engine, more particularly for ship propulsion



0. SIMMEN Sept. 5, 1933.

INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE, MORE PARTICULARLY FOR SHIP PROPULSION FiledJuly 30, 1951 INVENTU OW iziw AWE] EYS Patented Sept. 5, 1933 INTERNALCOMBUSTION PARTICULARLY Oscar Simmen,

' firm: Sulzer Freres terthur, Switzerland- ENGINE, MORE FOR SHIPPROPULSION Erlach, Switzerland, assignor to Societe Anonyme, Win-Application July 30, 1931, Serial No. 553,945,

and in'Switzerland August 23, 1930 1 Claim. (Cl. 123-440) This inventionrelates to internal combustion engines, more particularly for thepropulsion of ships, and has for its object to provide an improvedconstruction of engine of the kind hav- 5 ing a safety governor, that isto say a governor which, during normal operation of the engine, 1sinoperative but is adapted to come into operation if and when the enginespeed becomes abnormal, as for instance in the case of ship propulsionif the propeller emerges from the water as may occur in a rough sea. I

In an internal combustion engine according to the present inventionthere is combined with a control member for cutting off the fuel supply,a starting and stopping device and a safety governor both connected toand capable of acting on the control member. The invention isparticularly applicable to multi-cylinder internal cornbustion enginesand in this case the arrangement is conveniently such that the movementof the control member under the action of the safety governor cuts offcylinders in not put into the fuel supply to the various so that thecylinders are operation all together but succession, and out ofconsecutively. Further, with such an arrangement the movement of thecontrolmember under the action of the safety governor is preferably solimited that it can cut off the fuel supply to the majority only of Ithe cylinders and permits the fuel supply to at least one cylinder tocontinue.

In order that movement of the by the starting and stopping controlmember device may be effected independently of the safety governor,

lost motion safety governor and the control member.

preferably provided between the Thus,

the control member may comprise a rod through which the starting andstopping this rod may through a coupling which to act on the rod afterment of the governor can cut off device acts, and be connected to thesafety governor a predetermined moveso that, whereas thesafety governorthe fuel supply whenthe fuel pumps have been rendered operative by thestarting device, yet the governor cannot cause the fuel pumps to thefuel supply has Thatv is to say,

deVlCe.

be rendered operative when been out off by the starting the safetygovernor is only operative when the starting device is in its onposition.

The invention may be carried into practice in various ways,oneconstruction according to this invention being diagrammaticallyillustrated by way of example in the accompanying drawing, in

which Figure 1 i s a side elevation, partly in section,

only becomes operative 7 showing one form of apparatus accordingto thisinvention, and:

Figure 2 shows the ting the fuel pumps position of the member putintoand out of operation when the safety governor comes into action.

In Figure 1 is shown a form of the invention applicable to a fourcylinder internal combustion engine.

In this construction the four fuel pumps (not shown) for the individualcylinders are provided with inlet valves 1 arranged in casings 2 andcontrolled by springs 3.

bers 7, through which Arranged in chamfuel is delivered to the inletvalves 1, are relief cams 5 mounted upon rocking spindles 4 which areconnected through levers 6 to a common coupling rod 8. The coupling rod3 is connected by means of a rod 9 to one arm of a bell crank lever. 15,

adapted to be acted upon 13 having a crosshead carries a roller whichstarting and stopping lever through the cam 12,

the other arm of which is by a push rod or plunger 14. The crosshead 14bears upon a cam 12 on a 11 which thus acts push rod 13, lever 15 androd 9 to move the, coupling rod 8 and hence to rock the shafts 4 so thatthe relief cams 5' either raise the inlet valves pumps inoperative, orthemselves so that the ation.

1 so as to render the fuel permit these valves to seat fuel pumps comeinto oper- The coupling rod 8 is connected also to one end of a rod 10the other end of which is disposed 18 the within a cylinder end of aspring 19,

the end 21 of the cylinder.

and is acted upon by one other end of which acts on The cylinder is pivoted to one arm of a bell crank lever 17 the other arm of which isconnected to the 20 is provided on the rod .10

governor 16. A stop sleeve of a safety to limit the movement of thecylinder 18 along;

this rod.

The operation of the apparatus is as follows. When the starting andstopping lever 11 is in the position A it will be seen that all thesuction valves 1 are lifted from their seats so that the fuel pumps areinoperative. When the engine is to be started,

the lever 11 is moved position C whereby of engagement with from theposition A to the the cam 12 will be moved out the roller on thecrosshead 14, the bell crank lever 15 willbe moved to the right by theaction of rod 10, and the levers the spring 19 acting on the 6 will thusall be rocked to the right so that the valves 1 will be permitted toseat themselves under 3 whereby the fuel pumps are ation.

the action of their springs brought into oper- Duringthe operation ofthe fuel pumps the quantity of fuel injected may be regulated in amanner well known per se by modifying the plunger strokes. Thisregulation is effected in accordance with the working conditions of theengine and will not be explained since it forms no part of the presentinvention.

If, however, the rotational speed of the engine becomes abnormally high,as for instance in the case of ship propulsion in the event of thepropeller emerging from the water, the safety governer 16 will come intoeffective operation and will move the bell crank lever 17 from theposition D to the position B. This bell crank lever will thus actthrough the cylinder 18 so that its end 21 comes into contact with theabutment 20 and thus moves the rod 10 and the coupling rod 8 to the leftwhereby the shafts 4 are rocked by the levers 6 so that the cams 5 liftthe inlet valves 1 from their seats to render the fuel pumpsinoperative. Below the excessive speed at which the safety governor 16is designed to come into operation, this safety governor must have noeffect on the coupling rod 8, and it will be seen that this is readilyeffected by reason of the clearance y which, during normal operation ofthe engine,.is between the end 21 of the cylinder 18 and the abutment20.

It will further be seen that by moving the hand control 11 from theposition C to the position A, the coupling rod 8 can be moved to theleft independently of the governor 16, and this movement will take placeagainst the action of the spring 19. Thus when the starting lever 11 ismoved into the position (3, it is the spring 19 which causes themovement of the rod 8 and of the levers 6, shafts 4 and cams 5, so thatthe springs 3 'of the suction valves only have the suction valvesthemselves to operate and do not have to cause movement of the controlmechanism. Moreover the spring 19 serves to prevent play in the parts ofthe control mechanism so that this mechanism oper ates in a noiselessmanner.

In the modified construction shown in Figure 2 the arrangement isgenerally similar to that shown in Figure 1 except that the relief cams5 are so angularly placed on their shafts 4 that when the fuel pumps arein operation the distances between the various relief cams and theirassociated valves are different. The result is that during the movementof the rod 8 to the right to bring the fuel pumps into operation bypermitting their inlet valves to seat themselves, the valves of thevarious pumps are permitted to come into operation successively, whilesimilarly, when the rod 8 is moved to the left to cut out the fuelpumps, the fuel pumps are cut out in succession and not all together, sothat both during the starting and the stopping of the engine, thetransition from one state to the other is smoother owing to which theengine, as well as the ship on which it is used, is protected fromundesirable and injurious vibrations.

In this arrangem nt the movement of the safety governor is further solimited that it can only move the rod 3 a sufficient distance tocompletely out off the fuel supply to three of the cylinders so thatwhen the rod 8 is moved under the action of the safety governor, atleast one cylinder will still be supplied with fuel. Thus the engine isnever entirely cut out by the action of the safety governor whereby theaction of this governor on the engine is made in such a manner as toavoid undesirable shocks and vibrations. In this connection it willreadily be seen that if the safety governor were to switch offsimultaneously all the cylinders, for instance when the ships propelleremerges from the water, and were simultaneously to switch all thecylinders on again when the propeller again became submerged, thisaction would be apt to produce undesirable vibrations in the whole ship.This disadvantage is avoided by the preferred arrangement shown inFigure 2 in which only the majority of the cylinders can be switched offby the safety governor and the switching-off of such cylinders iseffected in succession and not all together.

In the construction shown in Figure 2 the position of the levers 6during normal operation of the engine, that is to say when the startinglever 11 is in the position C, is marked 0. When the safety governor 16comes into operation the coupling rod 8 will be moved to the left onlyto such an extent that the levers 6 will assume the position b, thisbeing ensured, for instance, by limiting the travel of the sleeve of thegovernor. In the position of the coupling rod 8 the extreme right-handfuel pump will still continue to work, since there will still be aclearance at between the relief cam 5 and the suction valve 1 of thispump. On the other hand the suction valves 1 of the remaining pumps willbe lifted from their seats respectively to the extent of clearances :21,2a: and 390 so that these fuel pumps will be inoperative. When the handcontrol lever 11 is in the position A the coupling rod 8 will be in itsextreme left-hand position, so that the levers 6 are in the position awherein the suction valves of all the fuel pumps are raised so as tostop the engine.

It will be seen that with the constructions according to the presentinvention the same control apparatus for putting the fuel pumps into andcut of operation can be used both for the manual control and for thecontrol by the safety governor.

I claim:

In an internal combustion engine in combination, a plurality ofcylinders, a fuel supply valve for each cylinder, a cam 'rotatablymounted upon a rocking spindle arranged in a fuel supplychamber providedin each cylinder, a lever fixed upon each of said rocking spindles, arod connected to all of said levers, a starting-andstopping device, acam mounted on a shaft actuated by a handle of said starting andstopping device, a crosshead carrying a plunger slidably arranged in aguide and acted'upon by said cam of said starting an stopping device, abell crank lever having one arm cooperating with said plunger and onearm pivoted to one end of said rod, a cylinder slidably engaging theopposite end of said rod, a spring surrounding said end of said rodhoused in said cylinder, a safety-governor, a bell crank lever havingone arm pivoted to said cylinder and the other arm to a sleeve connectedto said safety governor, and ashoulder on said rod adapted to be actedupon by said cylinder controlled by said safety governor, thearrangement of said levers being such, that all of them are fixed upontheir rocking spindles under the same angle, whereby all of said controlcams are operated to cut off the fuel supply if under the action of saidsafety governor said cylinder acts upon said shoulder on said ro OSCARsIMMEN.

